


Haven

by oMega1361



Category: The Gifted (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Fenris Is Fair, Gen, Independent Lauren, Kinda Lauren-centric, Magic Locket Guys, Metaphors, Siblings, but not really, lots of imagery, post s02e13, shit is gonna go down, you'll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-10-25 10:28:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20722712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oMega1361/pseuds/oMega1361
Summary: If she wanted to tend to her own sanctuary, she had to build it first: a new base, a new home, a haven for all that needs it.She couldprotectand she couldattack, but it takes a lot more than raw power todefend.****Lauren Strucker is tired.Cut off from her power and distant from her parents, she doesn't know how to live in the midst of war. She's irritated by how little her friends are doing to help mutants, nowadays, and she hates the Inner Circle for plunging her world into chaos.For tearing her family apart.It takes a dream, a necklace, and her great-grandfather's words to jumpstart her own journey, as she builds a hidden sanctuary and uses her new vigilante status to rescue and welcome mutants into her home.As the others fight, Lauren learns who she is without her brother and teaches herself how to survive.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prologue

_"Fenris is our destiny..."_

_"...two sides...light and the darkness..."_

_"We belong together..."_

_"...always in conflict..._

_"Andy is one of the terrorists..."_

_"...know each other's strength..."_

_"I know things...about us, about Fenris..."_

_"It's like he's probing my mind...searching for weaknesses..."_

_"...embrace your opposing forces..."___

_ _ _"...trying to warn me...the darkness in our family..."_ _ _

_ __ _

_"...be whole..."_

_"No you don't understand!"_

Lauren opened her eyes to a red-tinted sky. Ashes fell around her, and she breathed them in, unable to distinguish whether they were of wood or flesh.

She was lying on her back. She turned her head to the side and faintly registered the flames surrounding her. Lauren lay in a patch of sweet, green grass, lining her body amongst the charred earth that spread in every direction. Her limbs felt heavy, as she sat up to survey the destruction.

The world was burning, and she was too numb to feel anything when she saw her brother in the midst of it.

He and the others fit in so well, black clothing and hellish laughter accented by the walls of fire on all sides of them.

When did Lauren get so close?

She looked down; she hadn't moved. She still sat in the middle of her grass. Her outfit, too, she realized, fit in with her own small world: soft pants and her favorite jacket, colored white. Her shirt was white, as well, and Lauren's eyes were drawn to the only splash of real color on her being.

A locket, adorning her neck and chest with Fenris gold.

She raised a hand to grasp it, but paused. An unknown forced compelled her to look up again.

The Inner Circle danced around her now, faces clear, and Lauren glanced at them all before resting her eyes on her brother. He stood still, in front of her, a pillar within chaos. He held his hand out to her, as if to help her stand, and she looked down at her own, still in the air.

_"We're the only ones who understand each other..."_

She found herself reaching for him, momentarily forgetting the others, the flames, the ashes. Her fingers were just about to graze his when the hem of her sleeve suddenly darkened into black. She paused, again, and looked down at her grass.

In her arm's journey, she had breached the edge of her small sanctuary -for that's what it was, a sanctuary- and she knew she had a choice to make. Take her brother's hand, and let him pull her into the flames, or reside here in the grass, to help it grow.

Lauren looked into her brother's black eyes, and slowly took her hand back. He frowned, and she saw his fingers twitch. She knew he didn't know what to do, for he had never been the one to approach her; he merely waited for her to go to him, to beg, to plead, as she always had before.

No more.

_"...we can do anything we want here..."_

Lauren stood on her own, and her brother stepped back, completing the circle of terrorists that now surrounded her. She turned slowly, meeting the eyes of every person that stared back at her, putting names to their faces: Lorna, Esme, Fade, Pheobe, Bulk, Sophie, _the White Queen_... Andy.

Her brother's name is Andy.

She couldn't read his expression, but she knew his heart, and its beats echoed in her blood, flowing throughout her entire being. She raised her hand again, and his eyes followed the path it took to where the locket rested, next to her own heart.

For this moment, it was her own, though his seemed to be trying to overthrow her veins.

Her fingers closed around the locket in a gentle grip, and the smallest wave of power entered her, meeting Andy's presence and pushing it away.

Her brother's eyes fluttered, and Lauren knew by the brief flash of Fenris that appeared in them that he had felt it, too.

She watched them take a step closer to her as one, and _felt_ rather than saw her sanctuary expand. She _felt_ her brother's heart jump when he and the others were forced back, and then she was lifting her arms and her shields were aiding her defense -for that's what this was, self-defense- and she _felt_ his **denial** when he and his new family were driven away.

The numbness was gone, and as her sanctuary grew to cover new ground, Lauren _felt **free**_.


	2. Chapter One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Okay, Andy," she whispered, carefully placing the entwined hair strands into the necklace. "Let's see how strong I can get."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short summary for a short chapter. Don't worry, the plot thickens from here!

Lauren opened her eyes to a dark, wooden ceiling and the misshapen hole where her ceiling fan used to be. She grimaced, but it was a relief not to see it engulfed in flames.

Her dream came back to her, slowly, and Lauren pondered the fact that her brother was there, but he wasn't _there._ It wasn't...comfortable, she decided. In fact, now that she was awake, she was already beginning to feel the strange hollow feeling in her chest where half of her heart should be.

Half of her....

Lauren sat up, abruptly, eyes wide. Her dream, her mind, and her heart had been completely hers. She had been stronger for it; strong enough to resist Fenris and the power it grants Andy to pull her to him.

But Fenris gave her power, too.

She raised her arm across her chest in an echo of her shield. _Protect._

She slanted it, and felt the promise of her weapon to wield. _Attack._

Lauren lowered her arm, and she could almost see the particles spreading throughout her room, creating a sense of safety that made her sigh in content.

She got out of bed and made her way to her window. She opened it, and a strong breeze flew past her. When she held her hand out, Lauren could feel the air moving; even without her power, she treasured the feeling of manipulating the wind with the small, simple movements of her hand.

She thought about her dream again, and among the memories of dancing demons and her brother's flames, she pictured the locket that set her soul free.

_Fenris,_ she mused, _but not Fenris._ The Wolf did hide in the gleaming jewelry, but it didn't overcome her like the full force always does...

When she was nine years old, her parents bought her and Andy their first bikes. The bikes came with helmets, of course, and there were training wheels attached. Andy, despite being two years younger, stubbornly refused them, but Lauren jumped at the opportunity to avoid more scrapes and bruises.

By the time both siblings had mastered the act, Lauren was proudly uninjured, and Andy was checkered in cartoon band-aids and purple skin.

The locket was like a set of training wheels: a small semblance of power that held Andy at arm's length, giving her the chance to master her light force as Andy did his darkness-alone.

Lauren pulled her hand back into the room and slowly closed her window. She made her way out of the room and towards the kitchen table, where her parents and the others sat. Glancing at her father, Lauren knew she had to stop taking his medicine.

...Right after she found the right necklace, for she already had an inkling of the source of Fenris that it would hold.

_"A piece of my sister and a piece of myself, intertwined to become one..."_

Supressing that part of herself wasn't controlling it; it only allowed her power to control her.

If she wanted to tend to her own sanctuary, she had to build it first: a new base, a new home, a haven for all that needs it.

She could _protect_ and she could _attack,_ but it takes a lot more than raw power to _defend._

Oooo

Lauren didn't often think about her old life. Everything that was important to her -boys and parties and popularity- seemed so irrelevant now. None of it felt real. As far as she was concerned, her life only truly began that night in the school gym.

Now though, standing in front of the local mall, surrounded by carefree, oblivious teenagers, she was forced to remember. She had to take a moment to regain the muscle memory required to walk and smile at the same time, to wink at cute boys and give tiny waves when other girls smiled at her.

Fifteen minutes in and she was already exhausted.

She nearly cried in relief when she saw the sign for a nearby jewelry store.

Walking in, Lauren sent a quick smile to the woman at the counter before browsing the glass cases. She scanned the necklaces until she found a row of lockets displayed in the corner of the store.

The woman walked over to her and gently asked the standard question: did she see anything she liked?

Lauren surveyed them and pointed to a silver white locket that stood out among the gold-plated and pure white sheens of the others. The chain looked a little thin, but Lauren was sure she wouldn't be so completely careless as to damage something that would become so important to her.

As the woman picked it up and held it out to give her a closer look, Lauren fell in love with the subtle intricacy of the swirling engravings that edged the necklace, itself; it reminded her of freely flowing air.

She thought if she wore it, she could feel free, too.

The locket wasn't cheap, but Lauren had swiped a healthy amount of cash from a local ATM with one of her father's tweaked credit cards. With a grey hoodie and her hair hidden in a tight bun under a cap, any camera that picked up on her actions would hardly be able to send out an accurate APB; as for the machine's security cam, Lauren took a bit of pride in how she managed to locate and avoid the small device.

_Being a criminal probably shouldn't have been that fun,_ she thought to herself. Oh, well. She was already a wanted mass murderer, may as well add thief to the list.

Lauren kept one hand in her hoodie pocket the entire way home, carefully fiddling with the secret to her salvation.

Once back at the apartments, she barely paid any attention to the familiarly empty atmosphere, knowing her parents were busy at the clinic by then.

Upon entering her room, she closed and locked the door and turned to the music box on her dresser. The temptation to listen to the song was strong, but Lauren forced herself not to pay it any mind. She quickly dug around for the quirky heirloom Andreas had left, pulling it out and almost slamming the box closed. Lauren shut her eyes and took a moment to stroke the smooth wood before trailing her fingers across it and walking away.

Lauren sat on her bed and opened her new locket, taking a deep breath as her great-grandfather's words echoed in her head once again.

_Only when you know each other's strengths and embrace your opposing forces, will you be whole._

"Okay, Andy," she whispered, carefully placing the entwined hair strands into the necklace. "Let's see how strong I can get."

The locket closed with a small click. Lauren walked over to her mirror, staring at her reflection for a moment before slowly raising the necklace and clasping it around her neck. She imagined the golden gleam that encased her brother's eyes in her dream and smiled.

_Let's get to work._

**Author's Note:**

> So this is an idea.
> 
> Lauren is gonna branch out a little: make her own little sanctuary that hides _and_ fights for mutants that get caught in the war between Reeva Payge and the Mutant Underground without contact with either groups. She makes her own little space and becomes a badass, I guess😂
> 
> Be patient with me, there's a lot in my head for this story.
> 
> I just really wanted to post something bc there's a lull in the fandom again and it scares me.


End file.
